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Terry Jacks was born and raised in Winnipeg. His family relocated to Vancouver in the early 1960s. Jacks took up guitar in his teens and at 18 formed a band called The Chessmen with guitarist Guy Sobell. The group had four top-ten hits in Vancouver between 1964 and 1966.

Following The Chessmen, Terry and Susan Pesklevits (Susan Jacks), whom he later married, formed The Poppy Family along with Craig McCaw and Satwant Singh. They had several hits in Canada and internationally, their biggest being "Which Way You Goin' Billy?", which went to #1 in Canada and #2 on the Billboard charts in the U.S. The song was written and produced by Terry Jacks which earned him a Gold Leaf (Juno) award in 1970 for his production.

The song "Seasons in the Sun", released in late 1973 on his own record label, Goldfish Records, became the largest-selling international single by a Canadian artist at that time, eventually selling 14 million copies worldwide. It earned Jacks two Juno Awards and became one of the biggest selling Canadian Singles of all time.[1]

The song was based on Rod McKuen's 1965 re-write of "Le moribond", originally by Belgian singer Jacques Brel from 1962. For his version, Jacks made some modifications to the lyrics, which along with McKuen's, resulted in a work that bears little resemblance to Brel's original in tone, substance or poetry. In the United States,[2] in Great Britain[3] and in Germany,[4] it was released on Bell Records, and the song nonetheless went to #1 on the charts. In Canada it was released on his own label, Goldfish Records, distributed by London Records Canada.[citation needed]

Jacks later released "If You Go Away" (another McKuen adaptation of a Jacques Brel song entitled "Ne Me Quitte Pas"), which reached #8 in Great Britain and #24 in Germany, and a cover of Kevin Johnson's "Rock 'N' Roll (I Gave You The Best Years Of My Life)", both of which had more success in Canada but also made the Billboard Hot 100chart in the U.S. He wrote and recorded a number of other songs and went on to produce many artists including The Beach Boys with a version of "Seasons in the Sun" several years before his own, but that was never released. He also produced the singles "Crazy Talk"[5] and "There's Something I Like About That"[6] for Chilliwack from their album Riding High.

Jacks produced two songs for Nana Mouskouri: "Scarborough Fair" and "Loving Arms" in 1976.[citation needed] He produced the Vancouver top 10 hit "Country Boy Named Willy" for "SPRING" on London Records (#38 Canada); And Valdy's original version of "Rock and Roll Song" (b/w sometime "Sunday Morning"). The record was scheduled for release on London Records but was re-recorded in L.A. with another producer when Valdy signed a recording contract.[7] He also spent a lot of time with Buddy Knox in the 1970s and produced a single for him with two songs: "Me and You" (written by Jacks) and the George Jones song "White Lightnin'". The single remains unreleased. Jacks also went on to produce a number of other artists in the 1980s and 1990s including DOA who recorded a punk rock version of "Where Evil Grows".[citation needed]

Jacks has worked in documentary film and video, producing several shorts on environmental themes including The Faceless Ones, The Tragedy of Clearcutting, The Southern Chilcotin Mountains and The Warmth of Love (The Four Seasons of Sophie Thomas) with cinematographer Ian Hinkle.[8] The video production The Faceless Ones earned an Environmental Gold Award from the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival.[9]

In the late 1970s, Jacks gradually withdrew from the music world. He had a daughter, born in 1985. In the 1980s Jacks became involved in the environmental movement, focusing on pulp mill pollution issues in Canada. His environmental work has earned him several awards including one from the United Nations Association of Canada and the Western Canada Wilderness Committee. He was awarded a lifetime achievement award[10] in 1997 for his work, as well as the Eugene Rogers Environmental Award.[11]

^"seventies music". wordpress.com. Retrieved January 19, 2014. Terry Jacks may have been responsible for one of the worst songs of all time but he’s since redeemed himself through the environmental work he’s involved in, in his native Canada